One of the top juco prospects in the country this junior college season is New Mexico Junior College 6-foot-7 ultra-athletic freshman prospect Garrison Phelps. A product of St. Mary's HS (2022 graduate), Phelps committed to Utah State in the Mountain West Conference after his excellent career for the Knights. After a season red-shirting @ Utah State, and a recent coaching change, Phelps decided to head the junior college route and has landed @ New Mexico Junior College, where he will look to reposition and develop his college recruitment. Phelps is set to have a big season and become one of the better recruited juco prospects in the country.
Phelps will play this season for New Mexico Junior College Head Coach Luke Mackay and his coaching staff, after leaving Utah State due to a coaching change. Former highly successful Utah State Head Coach Danny Sprinkle recently accepted the head coaching position at the University of Washington. New Mexico Junior College has been very good for the St. Mary's HS program, as former St. Mary's product Jeremiah "Bear" Cherry (UNLV signee) also went to the program and became one of the top juco post prospects in America last season. Cherry signed this spring with UNLV and will begin his career this college season. Phelps will now look to follow Cherry's proposed path, and look to have a big junior college season for himself, as he is one of the most athletic big wings in America in the junior college ranks, which should suit Phelps nicely in his future college recruitment this season.
Currently, Phelps is hearing from many Division-I college programs already, as his college recruitment is already beginning to heat up. While Phelps will most likely make his future college decision until the spring, look for Phelps to generate loads of college interest for himself this year.
Phelps attended Link Year Preparatory School (MO) after his career @ St. Mary's for a post-graduate year, after graduating from St. Mary's High School in the spring of 2022. Phelps held previous offers from Oakland, Texas State, Missouri State and Montana, before making his final college decision for Utah State.
Phelps has been a prospect that we have talked about for some time now, but he seemed to be overlooked consistently by many Division-I programs throughout his high school career, until landing at a nice mid-major plus program for himself.
Phelps also played his final spring and summer with the highly Adidas sponsored Dream Vision (NV) club program, which is one of the nation's premier club programs. Phelps played at a high level with this group, which benefited him a great deal in his college recruitment.
Phelps has grown a great deal physically since I last saw him compete. He has now grown to 6-7 in height and has gotten much stronger physically, and is an ultra-athletic wing prospect that can make plays from anywhere on the floor. He plays well above the rim these days and is a highlight reel performer, either in transition or while slashing to the basket in the half-court set. Phelps is one of the most athletic prospects in America. Phelps has really improved in his ability to make shots from anywhere on the floor, as he has improved his ball handling and ability to make shots consistently from longer ranges on the court. His play-making ability is also much improved.
Phelps is also the son of longtime Division-I college coach Dionne Phelps. Garrison comes from excellent basketball bloodlines.
I look forward to following Phelps this junior college season, and bringing you more updates on his college recruitment as it begins to develp throughout the junior college season. Our staff at Arizona Preps wishes him the best this season, and looks forward to great things from him in the future.